I've trawled the posts and picked up a lot (but not everything!) on getting Sky (legally) & FreeView all working on a Win7 HTPC.

If I understand correctly the hardware/datapath looks something like this:-----Win7 HTPC with H.264 decode capability (GF9300/785G/DiscreteVidCard)----------

- Jaycar reader is a kit avail frm Jaycar NZ. It can be connected directly to the COM on motherboard (W7 COM driver - on default settings) or via a PCI Sunix COM card (although the Sunix will use up a PCI slot). Latest posts suggest either COM solution works ok, but users have reported problems with the "Card Detect" physical switch/detect flag, a signal that is sent to NewCS. If problematic try setting CardDetect = 'NO' in newcs.xml config file.A work around (if problems experienced) is to pull your card out slightly (~1mm) to disengage the card detect switch but still keep card electrical contact. Reason for this "randomness" is that the ISO standard does not specify the logic level (H or L) for the "Card Detect" flag and leaves this up to the hardware manufacturer and software coder to decide (see the problem!).* This reader can be mounted in a PC using a 3.5" to 5.25" drive convertor.http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=84&topicid=38970** Jaycar Reader Mods are here: http://www.austech.info/programmers/295-jaycar-mkii-silicon-chip-article-cct-diagram.htmlFrom what I read the only mod needed for NZ is the Card Detect Invert Mod& maybe the Schottky Diode Mod (either only needed if card read probs are experienced).EDIT 19Aug: Highly recommend the Card Detect Invert Mod. Sorted out my card detect probs (see post below).

- DVBScard > A Hauppauge NOVA-S (or 4000) card is reported to work well.HD requires a DVB-S2 card.Access to HD requires a HD Ticket, which in turn requires you to have a HDi box in your home.

- DVBviewer (Pro) is a standalone program (.exe) that installs into W7. Incorporates a Plugins directory (to use with ACamd, see below).

You need one instance (program) of DVBviewer for each DVB-S tuner.Eg: for two tuners (or dual-tuner card) you would have c:\Program Files\DVBviewer1\... ; c:\Program Files\DVBviewer2\... (and so on for more tuners)RustyGonad: When you install each one make sure you select PROGRAM DIRECTORY for the preferences. This makes each instance standalone. This is also critical to making dual tuners work, otherwise both copies share the same preferences, which is likely to cause havoc. Also in each DVBViewer make sure you select all the devices that aren't being used to DO NOT USE under Options/Hardware. You should only select 1 tuner for each one, and it should be PREFERRED.Mattv: Once you are up, with DVBViewer/s running you can go to plugins -> Acamd then in the Actions menu make the following tweaks - All options ticked except:Show Monitor at startupNewcamd disable check on ProviderIdLock on Connection ID is checked, everything below that is unchecked.

- DVBLink is a standalone program (.msi) that installs into W7.Install both DVBLinkDV & DVBLinkServer applications.* DVBLink presents itself as a virtual tuner to W7MC. You "tune" MC to this tuner in the MC setup as you would a "real" one.

- NewCS (1.65) is an application that serves your card (to ACamd) info via the PC COM port from the Jaycar reader. Configuration (which is comprehensive) is via a newcs.xml config file.Setup (for Windows) is as follows:NewCS.exe -The CS part stands for Card Server. This .exe can be dropped into its own directory (eg: C:/NewCS/newcs.exe) along with the 2 x .dll's that go with it. This program will serve info from a legit card when called. Called, in this case, by ACamd (acting as a client). It needs to be running all the time and there is a nice GUI interface utility NewCSgui.exe.

NewCS reads a configuration file called 'newcs.xml'.Note: newscs.xml will need to be modified to match cardclient.conf (ACamd config file-see ACamd below).In NewCS you may need/want to play with some of the settings etc.(eg: a lot of people use "round" priority - there is some info on the options in the help files).Link: http://argoramble.blogspot.com/2009/08/htpc-urls.htmlMattv: My HTPC is a dedicated setup. I therefore have a shortcut to NewCS.exe in the Windows startup folder so once the PC starts it is available and then runs all the time.

- ACamd v0603 is a .dll that lives in the DVBviewer Plugin directory. It reads a config file called 'cardclient.conf'. Acamd calls NewCS as a client.Install is as simple as copying these files to the DVBviewer Plugins directory. Note: cardclient.conf will need to be modified to match newscs.xmlLink: http://argoramble.blogspot.com/2009/08/htpc-urls.htmlMattv: In the Acamd cardclient.conf you really only need the last line (without the # at the start) Naturally you need to change the username and password in each DVBViewer instance, for each user you setup that accesses NewCS. The CAID will need to be changed for your card. You can find that when you get NewCS to work properly - ie if it can talk to the card properly it will return a line with something like the one below:[ 20:59:07 ] [ Loader ] Card XXXX on port com1 ready

- BSE/tool is a W7MC (Win7 Media Centre) EPG (Electronic Progam Guide) conversion tool for converting a xmltv file into a file that W7MC can use. It uses an internet (or other) sourced xmltv EPG scrape, such as that referenced in the BSE documentation. BSEtool can be downloaded from:http://bigscreenglobal.com/reg/acct_login.aspx?GOTO=BSE (requires registration).It is very powerful with some nice tools (ie: reset W7MC to first-time condition).

stoal76: Thanks for putting all the information in one place, I am very interested in getting this setup as well, can the Jaycar reader connect to a Motherboard serial port header?

No prob

The simple answer is yes. The long answer is yes but users have experienced various issues - although it could be said (?) that those issues may actually have been caused by: - The Card Read/Decode software used at that time - The Jaycar kit - The Card Detect switch and or its configuration in the config file/s.Latest posts seem to show all is well with using the M'Brd COM port. Consenus for a workaround is to connect to the Reader via a Sunix Serial Card. Problem is this uses up a valuable PCI slot.

BTW: For anyone reading this thread and the subject for the 1st time - I would just like to say that this post is entirely derived from all the hardwork put in by the Posters in the link above and before! This thread is merely my attemps to condense those experiements/findings into one place!

Firstly I have 2 (potentially 3) DVB-S cards running through DVBLink. I have my 2 DVB-T cards (4 tuners) running directly into Win 7 MC rather than through DVBLink. This gives me 6 (potentially 7) tuners available in 7MC. If everything goes through DVBLink you limit yourself to 4 tuners only. (the reason I don't use all 3 DVB-S ones is that running more than 2 seems to develop the glitchs every ten seconds)

argo: DVBLink is a standalone program (.msi) that installs into W7. Do you install both DVBLinkDV & DVBLinkServer ???

Yes you need both. There may still be some issues with the EIT guide data and DVBLink hence the need to use BSE instead. You may need to search the DVBLink forums to eliminate some of the "tuner errors" you can get. There have been new releases since my version but as I have it working great I don't want to play anymore until the retail version of Windows is out.

argo:- NewCS 1.65 is a DOS .exe that reads a newcs.xml config file and then reads the Jaycar reader via your HTPC's COM port. Question: what 'calls' the NewCS .exe ??? Is it DVBViewer??? How is this setup ???

My HTPC is a dedicated setup. I therefore have a shortcut to NewCS.exe in the Windows startup folder so once the PC starts it is available and then runs all the time. DVBViewer uses Acamd which then talks to NewCS. You need to setup the newcs.xml as required (see other thread above)

argo:- Acamd v0603 is a .dll that lives in the DVBviewer plugin directory. I think it reads a config file called 'cardclient.conf' ??? Does Acamd call NewCS ??? Is install as simple as copying these files to the DVBviwer plugin directory ???

Basically. Then mod the cardclient.conf to match up with your settings in newcs.xml. There are a few other setting tweaks you can make. I'll try and post sometime when I have access to all that info again.

Ie: # 'hostname' is the name of the server# 'port' is the port on the server # 'emm' is a flag to allow EMM transfers to the server # (0=disabled 1=enabled) # 'caid' (optional) caid on which this client should work

Ok built the Jaycar Card reader. Tested voltages etc, all good. Tried it with W7 Build 7100, NewCS 1.65 ( carddetect>no1st try -No card reset passed through..."Reset Failed"*Tried the pull out 1mm trick and got varying results as the reader mechanism my kit came with is a bit of an all-or-nothing device.*Carried out the invert card detect mod.*Carried out the schottky diode mod.

2nd try - NewCS gets as far as passing the reset (I think) and then the application hangs and asks if I want to send an error report to MS, also 3 log files are produced. Checked I was running newcs.exe as an Administrator, also tried running in XPSP3 compatibility mode - but no change.

Anybody have any ideas?

EDIT: Running on a ~7 year old Pentium 4 PC (if that makes a difference?)

I can say that my experiences exactly matched the Poster's, in this thread (newcs 1.65 will only run on a core2 duo chipset in windows).

To elaborate I am trying to run newcs 1.65 on a P4 PC running on a Springdale chipset - and it crashes everytime.

To test this theory I reconfigured with newcs 1.20 (RC13) and now the newcs exe works perfectly. Looking at Mattv's setup (in the above post) this theory holds true - that is Matt is running 1.65 on a Core 2 Duo (unlike myself).

Given this latest experience and the fact that newcs no longer supports windows from 1.66 onwards, my next mini-project will be to follow in RG's footsteps and setup a Linux VirtualBox inside W7. This will hopefully get around the chipset dependency problem and also future-proof me for later newcs versions.

With regard to Jaycar hardware - the invert card detect hardware mod worked perfectly. I set carddetect back to 'Yes' in 1.20 (....<carddetect>Yes</carddetect>...) and it works great (no pulling the card out 1mm).

I am using the Jaycar reader, v1.65 of NewCS, serial port on motherboard, and running a Core2Duo.

I have set the carddetect Yes to check the card is being detected, if the card is out it will keep cycling through, if it is in it will report "Reset Failed..." and "Newcamd thread server started" so I guess it is detecting the card.

But when I start DVBViewer with ACamd set to COM1 it dosn't find anything "no smart card interface detected"

You must have a successful INIT as without that the Loader cannot proceed to read your card. From reading the Jaycar supplied instruction sheet, INIT actually initiates the card to start 'talking' to NewCS.

- Is your Reader in 'Read' mode? (Pushbutton switch IN) - Is your Reader jumper in the Phoenix mode (Jumper 1-2)? This inverts the reset pulse. - Is your Reader jumper set to Xtal1-3.5795MHz (Jumper 1-2)? - Try the pull-card-out-1mm-trick and see if that changes anything - Also set CardDetect to 'No' in the xml file (I use Wordpad).

If still problems you could try using NewCS 1.20 as that's a pretty easy test.

If after all that you still problems and are no further ahead, I'd more than happy to help you with the Reader Hardware Mods, just PM me.

The only thing after that is you COM port & your seriel cable/connectors. Less likely I would guess.

This thread is exactly what I need. Been struggling with this for a year now, and this should work out.

However, my first issue is that when I try to scan the satellite with any software, (DVBViewer, MCE or the Twinhan software that came with the cards), it doesn't appear to pick up any channels on Optus C1 for the Foxtel channels.

What am I doing wrong?

I'm using W7 7260. I have a Twinhan DVB-T that works like a dream. I really, REALLY want to have this setup working for satellite.

There could be many things wrong I suppose but your post doesn't really say what you have done to check the setup. However, to start with...

Do you know if the sat dish is connected properly? aligned properly? (ie can a set top box say, plugged into the same socket/cable, get a proper signal?) I don't know anything about your card but is it setup to power the LNB properly. Do you have the correct settings for your LNB and transponder freq's for your location set in DVBViewer (sorry can't tell you what they should be in Oz) I don't know if DVBViewer's transponder .ini will be up to date for your area but I would have thought MCE would have worked ok...

Mattv: There could be many things wrong I suppose but your post doesn't really say what you have done to check the setup. However, to start with...

Do you know if the sat dish is connected properly? aligned properly? (ie can a set top box say, plugged into the same socket/cable, get a proper signal?) I don't know anything about your card but is it setup to power the LNB properly. Do you have the correct settings for your LNB and transponder freq's for your location set in DVBViewer (sorry can't tell you what they should be in Oz) I don't know if DVBViewer's transponder .ini will be up to date for your area but I would have thought MCE would have worked ok...

Thanks for responding,

I have to assume that the dish is setup correctly as it is connected to the Foxtel STB and receiving. The dish is the one provided by Foxtel. Not sure about the LNB settings. I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction for that.